For today 4/20/20 I'll share with you the story behind this username, Acurewa, and with it the study so far of my relationship with one of my most beloved plants.
To the point "Acurewa" means in Hüottüjan (Piaroan) language soft, smooth and also Cannabis. Hüottüja people regard cannabis as the little sister of the Dadá plant, their most revered medicine plant, the mother of all medicines. They also see it as medicine for city people. Some of them use it and some of them don't, but for them it doesn't have the stigma that cannabis bears on the cities.
I've heard and known about marijuana all my life, but I actually had my first contact with the sacred plant at 28 years old.
Most of my teenage and young adult years I might have been around it but I was terrified of it because of the rough time my older brother spent battling an addiction on drugs that he overcame a couple of years later.
My usual strategy on things that I don't understand is getting information. So, for years, I read about drugs and actually talked to people that used them. And I came to the conclusion that they were dangerous, but not more than legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco. And, in the specific case of cannabis, it seemed to be less dangerous than alcohol.
I was drinking a lot by that time. I was using alcohol as a social lubricant and was enjoying every bit of it. So I made my my mind up and took a decision.
I decided to try MJ for the first time just before carnivals on 2018.
I cornered three close friends of mine who, on many occasions, had fervently denied any use of cannabis, got them properly drunk and this time I asked the correct question:
Hey guys, I was thinking about trying MJ. Do you have any friend who smokes and could get me some?
And there followed the confession that they smoked occasionally with friends.
The problem, anyway, was that they didn't have any, nor they knew anybody who sold. So, we called another friend that was really into the drug scene and, after two tries, (the first time the guy got paranoid and hung up upon us), he agreed to take us to buy some weed on the condition we "rescued" him with some of it.
Around 3 pm said friend came to pick us up on his beaten up Ford Fiesta he used to work as a taxi cab. Three of us got in the beaten old car and then our friend heads straight up to the seediest part of town.
On our way there he opens up and tells us that he is doing the taxi rounds to pay a drug debt and that he is dry. Nice story bro, but not so relaxing at all.
So we get to the dangerous part of the town and park up to wait for our hookup. Around ten minutes passes and then this guy with like five different nervous ticks and a paranoid attitude hops into our car. Our friend starts the car, the guy relaxes, greets everybody and asks "Who's the stuff for?" and my friends, of course, signaled at me. I bring out the 50 Bs bill and get greeted by a pressed brick piece around the size of a cigarette box.
"Whoa!", I think. "This is really it."
Then our not so nervous anymore dealer asked if we wanna roll one to smoke. Everybody said yes so, in like 15 seconds, the guy took a little piece of the brick, grinded it with his fingernails, produced a rolling paper from nowhere and got us a professionally rolled joint. We proceeded to smoke it while our friend drove us around the crazy parts of town again and got our crazy dealer back to his place.
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I felt little to nothing. Our friend drove us back to my car, I gave him the magicians brick and he took a little piece. We both were happy with the deal.
I proceeded to call my Spanish friend, who had done all the drugs and left them when he became a dad, to ask him if he would join us in a Marijuana party. The guy said yes, we picked him up, got to my place, there we rolled 9 joints and proceeded to burn them all between all 4 of us.
This time I really felt it.
I laughed a lot. One of our friends stared at a wall for like two hours. We had an amazing stoned time that night. But the pact was sealed the next morning when I woke up: I opened up my eyes expecting some kind of nasty hangover and sickness, but no, I was feeling on! I fell in love.
Over the years I stopped drinking that much. Nowadays I drink rarely and I go by with a couple of beers and that's enough.
But my story with Mary Jane is still going to this day. We've learned a lot together.
Eleven years later, from a purely recreational use, I've evolved to use it as the sacred medicine it is. I have learned to make concentrates, tinctures and even food with it. I've helped sick people with cancer, Parkinson, insomnia and other problems to heal themselves using the sacred plant.
I became a healer to myself and the plant saw my change of attitude and gave me many gifts to keep sharing the love she had given me over the years. And with that love I mean: I am more patient since I use cannabis, I take things less seriously now, I enjoy more of the food, I share more with my friends, I am more healthy and finally she let me laugh as a kid again when I was becoming a seriously grey adult.
I learned to respect the plant as I learned to respect myself.
It wasn't an easy road though. I lost 3 teeth due to bad dental hygiene for smoking too much and falling asleep with a mouth still full of food. I also got over indulgent with munchies and got a little overweight. But I learned. Everything has two sides, one light, one dark. And, to know said thing well, one has to go up and down too with it.
Today she is medicine, my medicine. Acurewa, my Saint Mary, my good friend Cannabis.
Happy 4/20/20!